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I listened to the latest episode of Bleed Tech Blue radio, and I decided to go down the rabbit hole of Louisiana Tech quarterbacks in the last five seasons.

Since 2020, 12 quarterbacks have appeared in at least one game and thrown at least one pass at Louisiana Tech. That list of Louisiana Tech QBs is:


Of those 12 quarterbacks, three remain at Louisiana Tech as QB1/QB2/QB3, two graduated, and seven transferred out.

Of the 7 QBs that transferred out, three performed well enough in the FCS ranks to earn postseason or preseason awards (Westin Elliott, Aaron Allen, and Matthew Downing). Three transferred to other FBS programs, but saw limited action at best (Luke Anthony had no snaps at Baylor, JD Head had no snaps at North Texas, Lyddy had limited snaps at UAB last year.) Only Bachmeier became a starting QB at another FBS school at Wake Forest.

Louisiana Tech has had no quarterbacks earn Conference USA postseason honors since 2019. From 2014-2019, four QBs from Louisiana Tech received postseason awards (Sokol was Newcomer of the Year in 2014, Driskel was Newcomer of the Year in 2015, Higgins was CUSA Offense 1st-Team and Offensive MVP in 2016, and J'Mar Smith was CUSA Offensive 1st-Team in 2019).

Blame the players. Blame the coaching staffs. Blame player development. Blame injuries. Blame random dumb luck. For one reason or another, Louisiana Tech hasn't had a DUDE at quarterback since J'Mar Smith in 2019. Not only have they not been great at Louisiana Tech, but they haven't been great at any other FBS program after they left Tech (with only three succeeding at the FCS ranks).

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There will be a BUNCH of new faces for the Diamond Dogs in 2025. Let's take a look.

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The Athletic Department once again covets your feedback.

1) This is not a thread to bash the football team. In fact, I asked. The response: we better start winning.

2) Please offer your feedback on the following. I will list my feedback that I already provided below the list along with responses.

3) I will drop some info at the end.

Pregame
The Bell
Champ Entrance
Team Entrance
Fireworks
Video and Audio

My feedback…

Pregame: excellent. Don’t change a thing.

Bell: the bell was finally front and center. Much improved. I love taking it around the tailgate. That’s cool.

Entrance: video was great. Love the pyro. Hate the lingering smoke flowing into the DAC, but what can you do? The video board showing the players coming through the interior door was very good. I hear there’s an effort to figure out how to get spirit of 88 out onto the field. I have no idea how you do that.

Fireworks: great. Good idea to do it at halftime. Post game = too soon.

Video board: video and sound were outstanding. There were some ref mic chirps in the 1Q but they resolved. Sounded like the sound system did not like the rain, but that corrected as well. People have asked why all the stats have to be up all the time…some would like to see the video feed across the entire board while still understanding the need for ads. Would be nice to extend the video to the entire board at least for replays occasionally if possible. The stats were cool but switched too quickly. Personally, I loved having the stats, but I agree with them changing too quickly. I also liked the rotating scores for other games. That one can move faster to scroll through games faster.

The general consensus seems to be that the entire game production was much improved.


Responses to my feedback…

Full screen video will be a goal during the next game, especially for replays, but it can get pretty distracting going back and forth to be honest, so there’s a balance we have got to find.

We tried to mix in more ads, notices early in the game before stats are really compiled then back off those and add more stats. That will be the goal again next game, it will help we have a few games worth of data to start with next go round.

Think scores were on an 8 second loop, may go down to 5 and see how that plays. Stats were on a 10 sec loop. We will try 15.

Mobilizing the Spirit of 88 is a big priority. We just couldn’t get it done yet with everything else going on. But we’d like to put it on wheels and bring it to the field then you can move it back inside, similar to the bell.

Champ apparently still wanted an entrance which we folded on last year after eliminating “here comes champ.” this year putting him in the side by side with the bell was how we got around it. Just sort of a last minute idea that happened to work.

Fireworks at half time will be in for the first four games. We will do post game fireworks at homecoming but will announce that way in advance. Messaging will be “this is happening, regardless of outcome.”


Bonus content:

According to my source (because I don’t play video games anymore), we are apparently getting some social media heat over the NCAA 24 video game on social media. Tech has been in contact with EA. I was asked not to disclose what’s coming, but the game’s next patch should be the week of the red out game.

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